A/N: I know, it's been for ages since I uploaded anything for this story, but I'm plan on finishing it soon enough. I hope I didn't lose readers this way. A special thank you to everyone who reviewed, alerted and favorited this so far. And just a quick reminder, since this chapter is a continuation of the previous one, Squall's ten and a half years old, Yuffie one and a half and Cloud seven and a half. Enjoy. ;)

~ Look at me, he thought, shaking his head. I'm talking to a baby... and imagining that she's actually talking back! I'm must be losing it... ~

A lonely figure, clad in black leather pants and ditto jacket, wandered around the town in the beautiful place called Radiant Garden. The weather was nice, crisp, but not too cold. However, he knew that this indicated that the warm summer days would soon be ending, being replaced by cool, bleak autumn afternoons.

A few days had passed after Squall's one-sided fight with his best friend Cloud Strife. Their argument had been about none other than Yuffie Kisaragi. From that day on, Squall had done everything he possibly could to avoid walking into Cloud. So far, he was, surprisingly enough, doing great. (That was quite strange, because Cloud was one of those people that you always bumped into when you didn't want to at all.) Admittedly, he had had to use his bedroom window to get out of his house without being seen by the blonde, but in the end, it was all worth it... probably... hopefully...

"Whatever," the brunette boy muttered under his breath, running a gloved hand through his soft, silky smooth locks.

He headed straight for the park, under the impression that he would be left alone there. It seemed that he was right about that one... until a plaything, a ball rolled his way from out of nowhere and stopped right at his feet. Squall, who had sat down on an empty bench, lifted a thin brow when he saw that Yuffie, who was probably the owner of the ball, stared at him questioningly. Squall sighed, before bending to roll the pink ball back to her. Pink, full of glitters and with pictures of princesses in bulbous gowns. This stupid ball couldn't look any girlier than that, he pondered. Meanwhile, Little Yuffie had rolled the ball back to him again, for the third time now.

Squall frowned, fully aware of how the child was watching him expectantly, waiting for him to roll it back to her just like the previous times. "I'm not going to roll it back to you this time. Go and find someone else to annoy," he told her, rather coldly, before turning away slightly to make his point clear.

He was certainly not in the mood for this nonsense and if she was smart, she would take the hint and leave him alone, baby or not. But then again, she was just a baby with little to no knowledge about people's thoughts and feelings. He doubted that she would understand anything.

Yuffie's big, chocolate brown eyes widened and she cried, indignantly "Da!"

"No, I'm not 'da-ing' it back to you. Why don't you go and play with Cloud? Last time you made it very clear that you like him much more than you like me, anyway."

"Daah!" she told him, angry now, as if she was actually saying, "Don't you dare to speak to me in that tone of voice, mister!"

Look at me, he thought, shaking his head. I'm talking to a baby... and imagining that she's actually talking back! I'm must be losing it...

He swiftly looked around to check if someone was watching him right now or not. Fortunately for him, that wasn't the case. As he continued looking around him, he spotted Mr. Kisaragi, Yuffie's father, sitting not too far from them. When their eyes met, brown vs. stormy blue, he smiled at Squall. The brunet boy nodded briefly as a greet, before turning his attention back to the little baby girl sitting in front of him.

"You'll have to come here yourself and take the ball, 'cause I'm not going to play this little game of yours with you."

He had barely said that, when Yuffie's face fell and tears started leaking from the corner of her eyes. When he saw that her lower lip was trembling, too, Squall started panicking. This hadn't been his intention!

"Okay, okay. I'll play with you. Here," he said, hastily, bending forward again to roll the pink glitter ball back to her. Anything to make her stop crying and look so heartbreakingly miserable. "Now, roll it back to me again."

Instantly, the little girl did as she was told, and suddenly, there was no trace of her ever being sad. Even those tears - Squall had seen them with his own eyes! - had disappeared mysteriously. Was he being fooled by a baby?

After a while of the ball being rolled back and forth between the two of them, Yuffie seemed to have grown bored. That didn't come as a surprise to the boy, since he had been bored as soon as they started doing this. She let the ball lie and started approaching Squall. Tapping on his bent knee with her hand, she looked up at him, a questioning look on her petite face.

"What?" Squall asked, frowning, fearing the worst.

He didn't know what she was trying to say, but he knew one thing; he wasn't going to like it.

Yuffie put her two hands in the air, indicating that she wanted Squall to pick her up so she could sit on his lap.

"No way," he replied, immediately looking away from her, before she would give him the almost-drowned-puppy look, again.

As expected, Yuffie didn't give up yet and walked to where she could look Squall in the eyes. To his surprise, he saw that her eyes were watering again, as if she was on the verge of tears.

This made him sigh. Oh, how he hated it that such a little child had so much power over him. It was incredibly and he felt completely helpless, as if she was the queen and he a flunkey.

"Fine. Come here." Careful as not to hurt her, he scooped her up and placed her on his lap. "There... happy?"

Yuffie squealed in pure delight, clapping her tiny hands several times as she smiled up at him, her dark eyes shimmering in joy. It was a sound and a sight that made the corner of Squall's mouth lift upward in the tiniest of smiles.

I guess that's a yes. At least someone's happy here...

Although deep in his heart, he knew he liked this, too. But that would stay a secret.

It wasn't long after that that the little baby fell asleep, still on his lap. He decided to bring her back to her parents and go home. Dinner was probably ready by now, anyway.

However, he would never forget what Mr. Kisaragi said to him that day; "Wow, I don't know what happened, but she really must like and trust you to fall asleep just like that. She never even likes to sit in a stranger's lap. I guess that she doesn't see you as a stranger, then."